Grotte de Niaux

Image: Jean Clottes
Image: Jean Clottes

The Grotte de Niaux is located in the Ariège department of France. This picture of a bison (above) is thought to be around 13,000 years old.

Image: Shuowen Jiezi: research tool
Image: Shuowen Jiezi: research tool

The picture is of interest because the two arrows may be an archaic variant of the character rǎn 冉, meaning weak. The two arrows indicate the position of the bison’s lung. The lung presented a large target area for the hunter. An arrow into the lung would have resulted in the animal’s death.

References

Image Credits:

Bison: Photo: Jean Clottes: Courtesy, Jean Clottes

Small seal script character: Shuowenjiezi: research tool in Chinese traditional philology: http://www.shuowenjiezi.com/